Beginner corals

I have 320 watt lighting with two daylight and two actinic. I currently have a kenya tree and some green polyps. What other begginer corals would you recommend i get?

 

What kind of lighting and what size is the tank?

 

Almost any softie or leather such as xenia, GSP, jasmine polyp, cluvaria polyp, toadstools, finger leathers, etc. Any kind of mushroom coral are also really easy.
LPS although a step up are also fairly easy depending on your selection of a healthy specimen to start with.
If going SPS route stay away from acros as they are the most demanding, but many montipora are fairly easy as well as long as you acclimate slowly to high light.

 

There really is no such thing as beginner corals as they can all be somewhat tricky. Some are a little less tricky than others. For example, xenia is thought of to be a beginner coral but I've found that xenia is the first coral to close up and react negatively to a ph change or any other subtle change in the tank. Same with leathers which require very high flow...almost SPS type flow. If I were starting, I would start with button polyps, zoas, button polyps. Things like that. They can recover pretty easily from changes in water quality.

 

To me, any coral frag I can get for less than $5 or 1$0 is a beginner coral;D

Green star polyps - great one, but keep it on its own rock that can be moved/removed. I'm having regrets about not doing that....

Xenia - grows very fast, plus the pulsing creates neat movement. I've had some melt - it can be weird that way, mostly pom-pom without much flow, but I haven't noticed any ph sensitivity. The pulsing ones are doing fine without much flow.

Mushrooms, zoanthids, yellow polyps, leathers, toadstools, gorgonians

They all seem to have a sweet spot and a not so sweet spot, which is why I favor inexpensive corals.

I'd recommend trying to get ahold of some local reefers that might be trying to sell some of this stuff. They usually reproduce very fast (the corals, that is...I don't know about the reefers) and there are many people who give them away. If you buy some of these "beginner" corals at a store, you will end up paying quite a bit more and typically get smaller frags.

 

My thoughs on Xenia. It seems to be hit or miss in people's tank. Just be prepared, if you add some and it doesn't wilt, it will spread and probably become like a weed:

This is what I started with:


This is what it looked like a few months later (And, this is after intense prunning):


(For the record, it now reaches all the way up to where the tips are touching the powerhead)

Just be prepared. Isolated it. And be ready to pick it if you need.

 

I asked the same question a month or so ago and I ended up going with softies and LPS. I've found my green star polyps grow incredibly fast, I've got a hammer and a torch which are doing very well, and a few mushrooms which I really like and have been super easy. Paly's and zoa's are cool too.

 

i like to start with soft corals